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Since all my picks for the quarter-finals were a disaster, I picked Italy for spite. Hmm.

So, since it’s late and I still don’t know how I feel about this, some quick impressions:

1st Half: That penalty decision was a bit marginal — not outrageous, generous, and Zidane very nearly won an award for idiocy with that penalty. Italy were unlucky not to go into half-time with a larger lead.

2nd Half: Apparently Italy wore themselves out in the first half. Their passing went to shit and the French were only too ready to jump in and take up the slack. Buffon’s save on Zidane’s header was a classic. There was a bit of defending by Cannavaro where he looked more like a one-man-ruck and he still came away with the ball (think it was in this half) — just fantastic.

Overtime: Damn that was stupid. I’m not going to jump into the crowd going on about the moral dimensions of Zindane’s headbutt, or the nature of the provocation by Materazzi — but it was a piss-poor time to lose one’s temper so completely.

Penalties: Don’t care for this, myself, but there you go.

Usually I have a team I clearly dislike, not this time, and as I watched I really thought that France was going to win in 90 minutes — but they couldn’t quite manage it.

Is it September 4th that they meet again for Euro 2008 qualification? Perhaps they will knock such lumps out of one another that the Scottish team might stand a chance hafter all (hahahahahahahahahaha!)